[Mission] What Once Was Lost (Blade,Puddle,Ice) [FIN]

[GunSniper]

Zutnic watched every statue nervously as they passed by them. His head swiveled from side until they passed the last statue. He had expected one to come to life and attack them at any moment. After the last statue was passed he quickly moved to a bit in front of Shun protectively, and still without his usual chatter.

"As much as I would love to do that master, I am afraid you have nothing to guard your shoulders against my talons. They are far sharper than the porkly one's claws. I am to protect you, not tear your shoulder off..." He did sound rather disappointed over the fact he could not take Talon up on the offer.

With a sigh he than gave into the cold attitude and spoke to Ranee, his head turning slightly so he could see her over his shoulder. "Most doors in the temples are rigged to do so, even some hallways are set to collapse if triggered. With what is inside this temple I would not be surprised if it is far more guarded than usual... Obliterators are... temperamental and unpredictable. A temple built to hold them will reflect this."

His focus tuned forward as the begun to enter the dark hallway. It was than he finally caught onto what was bugging Zut so much.

The dark veil revealed a long, and rather wide, hallway leading forward into more shadows. The ceiling looked normal, no lines on them nor the walls. The flooring looked safe as well.

The spike, that had been missing from the hole in the wall by the entrance, could be seen protruding from the center of circular runes on the wall inside the hall, not far from the entrance.

*click* *click* *snap* * SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeech*

The obnoxious clicking sound echoed through the halls followed promptly by the snap and an ear raking screech. On the opposite end of the hall, which would seem quite a ways off from where the group was standing, flashes of red and yellow lights brightened the end of the hall briefly before another crash shook the stones of the temple causing some sand to fall from the ceiling. Behind them a much closer rock grinding noise could be heard as a stone slab fell from the ceiling and covered the way to the stairs. The grinding gave way to a loud crash. One of the statues closest to the slab cracked than fell forward, shattering the terrible image.  

[Blade Kuroda]

Nodding at Atelius, Shun recalled the numerous collapsing hallways he had encountered in the temple where he had met Zutnic. It certainly had its fair share of that particular trap. It made him wonder how the hell the Ancients managed to navigate these things when they were still in use.

Peering down the hall, Shun tried to see what it was ahead. He didn't get a very good look at the spike when he heard something loud echoing through the halls.

"Lets get moving before the ceiling crashes down on us," he growled while staring at the lights up ahead. Were those obliterators perhaps? He kept his gun trained on the area ahead just in case as he started to move down the hall.

"And Zutnic, what the hell was that?"  

[PuddleInk]

At this point, once the rumbles started up, Talon became very quiet. He shook his head to the decline of his offer. Though he had this odd feeling he'd end up carrying that bird via-american football style once things got going. At least the precious thing was kind enough to point out that it was really sharp. "I'll invest in steel plated armor next time. " he mumbled to the bird.

Then paused as lights of red, yellow, and orange appeared. Obliterators...yes, those were what they were actually called. Though Talon watched in amused horror the power of physics and times effect on stone carvings. This was going to be a fun one... Moe chirped and clung tightly to Talon's shoulder, cooing as it got a reassuring pat, and the transportation squishy followed the other further down the path towards the lights.

Talon couldn't help but be amused at the possible incoming heavy irony of bringing a gun to fight a living firestorm. It was heavily in the air. Or was that the dust. Didn't matter. They were all doomed.  

[GunSniper]

"Biters" Zutnic hissed again before scooting closer to Shun. By now he was close enough that his closest spike was not but a few inches from the human's fleshy body. His eye brightened.

"that would be most help-"

A small scraping noise came from behind the walls. At first very few, but quickly the noise multiplied to give illusion to the walls shifting. Every circular rune begun to move forward slowly threatening the circular slab to be forced from the wall to the ground. The spike that had been in one of the circular runes was forced out and onto the floor with a heavy metal sound.

Atelius screeched. "-Quick, put it back in put it back in!" He would have himself save for he lacked the height and force to get it into the wall, which by the looks of it required a good amount of push to get it in. He also remained close to Talon as he flailed about.

From behind the sound of two heavy rocks falling to the ground echoed in the entrance chamber. Small metallic clicks and taps could be heard before a collection of dim red dots, eighty tiny dots to be exact, could be seen approaching them. More specifically Angelina whom had no court member at her side. Their dark metallic armor covered in dust and sand from wherever the little spider like mechs were hiding. Each one no bigger than a adult male's hand, yet their teeth and legs were visibly very sharp and menacing. A black substance was dripping in tiny drops from the stinger on their abdomen, this strange substance had the familiar aroma of oil.

 

[Blade Kuroda]

"Biters?" Shun repeated with a frown. This meant there were other little hazards that he and Talon weren't aware of and he really did not like that thought. Before he could really get an answer on what these biters were exactly, he was able to see them come skittering in himself.

"s**t..." he hissed under his breath before shooting a glance at Atelius. Looking back into the hall he saw the spike out of its place; it must have been the trigger to release the spider-like creatures. Though small, they seemed like they could do quite a bit of damage, especially considering how many there were.

Narrowing his eyes, he fired one shot at the closest biter before breaking into a run to get down the hall where the spike was.

Bent-Tail was quick to run with him here. The rat organoid did not like the looks of these spiders at all and didn't want to be anywhere near them if he could help it.  

[PuddleInk]

Skittering in the walls didn't help Moe much. The poor thing was shaking and clinging tightly to Talon's shoulder. But when an ominous thunk followed by louder skittering noises then the sight of the monstrous arachnids, Talon was pretty much ready to call it quits and leave. "Biters you say? Never would have guessed. " Talon would have helped, but he had a jumping and flailing bird of razors to worry about and a little dinosaur that's claws were starting to really hurt as they dug into his skin.


The aroma of oil was most curious. It had a certain stench about it that he couldn't place. Petroleum? Oh gods, he hoped not. That wouldn't be good when... A shudder and Talon dodged the distraught Atelius, kicking and knocking the spiders out of the way to help Shun get that blasted spike back into place.  

[GunSniper]

The biters moved quickly about across the floor toward their nearest target, Ranee. When the first gun was fired from Blade it struck true to the back of the lead spider, causing it to explode in a brilliant flash of red and yellow lights. The shots from Ranee struck two more of the spiders causing them to explode as well. The other five left in the assault barreled through the the fire without any hesitation. Their bodies gladly accepting the fire from their fallen comrades as it engulfed them completely. Each biter removed the glowing red cap on their abdomen to further fuel the fire by giving it access to the oil in their bodies.

The room with the pillars brightened a tad as the small droplets of oil caught fire as well revealing their traveled trail.

Each circular rune ahead of them continued to push from the wall slowly. The room was starting to look like an infant's shape toy with all these cylinders protruding from the flat walls. More of the biters could be heard moving behind them.

Zutnic dropped behind Shun further to keep the biters from reaching his master. He clicked his jaw at the approaching menaces only to receive a bubbly hiss from the group.

Atelius was starting to fall behind with his inability to move his legs as fast as the humans. He didn't have to say why it was important, the humans already seemed to have an idea that it locked the walls from opening any further to release the little devils.

*screeeeech* *BOOOOOM* *click-tap*

More loud noises and flashing lights could be seen, and heard, ahead of them. At that point Atelius hopped forward before taking flight down the hall ahead of them. He was cautious to weave through the humans ahead of him. It wasn't long before vanished into whatever hidden chaos was going on at the end of the long hall.  

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun had turned around to focus on the spike at this point, but he could feel the heat from flames behind them. So the creatures were filled with oil for sure, which really did not bode all too well for them in general, especially with what was supposed to be lurking deeper in these ruins.

While he ran, he noticed the runes in the walls moving as well. This gave him a little extra motivation to reach the spike sooner as he could hear the skittering of the biters from behind the circles as well. They didn't need more of these creatures to be harassing them right now.

Finally reaching the spike, he hastily put his gun and flashlight down for the time being to try and shove the thing back into the hole, leaving the others to keep the biters off of him while he attempted this.

When they were at the spike, Bent-Tail was looking back down the hall nervously. The explosions ahead of them did not make him feel much better and the fact that Atelius had flown ahead only made him more antsy.  

[PuddleInk]

Talon had nothing else to do than to keep the dang spiders away. Though now, now that it was revealed that oil in their bodies was what was dripping and ignighting, he was a little more keen to keep them away. So, using that walking stick he had he pretty much was knocking the spiders away.He might just pick up golf at this rate.

The illumination of the room didn't help. More were streaming out. Talon let out a rather rude curse, finding another cylinder to shove back in place. Fire or not, these were creepy and needed to be squished.

With Atelius up ahead, Talon didn't think that there could be anything that could add to make the situation better. A collapsing ceiling would be fun..but that wouldn't make much of a story. Seemed to cliche... The ancients were smarter than that, he knew that much.

Moe was in utter panic at this point... Talon swore the damn machine was making him bleed. Bah....Silly Moe.  

[Gestalt Effect]

One of the cylinder 'doors' finally had been pushed to far and fell to the floor with a crash just a few more feet down the hall. The hole it left behind brightened immediately with the dull red of the biter's glow. Ten more of the critters begun to storm the hallways. This time they were ahead of the group meaning the three were now the meat in the spider sandwich. Luckily when the spike was placed back in the wall there was a loud click and the other runes stopped moving completely. No more were released.

Two more biters exploded at the hit from Ranee's weapon. This time they sent flaming fragments toward the group in their wake when obliterated. The three left moved forward still trying to spread their fire to the intruders. Two of them tried to grab onto Talon's walking stick with no success. They would roll to the side and tried again as soon as they stopped rolling.

Zutnic whirled around when the rock fell to the floor. With a hiss he crouched down than sprang literally over Shun to get to the small Biters on the other side. The tips of his tails nearly scraped the top of the stone hallway as they passed.

As soon as he landed he charged forward with his head low and tails to either side of his body. Seven of the spiders easily scattered away from the angry Striker and continued toward the group. Three of them were immediately blocked by the metallic pincushion. One of which was promptly scooped up in Zutnic's jaws and crushed as if it were a grape.

Atelius's green eyes appeared at the end of the hall as he charged back toward the group with a shadowy figure in tow. Altelius flew over the group toward the flaming spiders Seeing as his master was in charge of keeping those at bay, and he would no doubt be in trouble if the girl was killed.

Nick approached the group at her own pace. Her right eye brightened in amusement at the sight. Of all the people to see down here. Fate must really like to take a piss on them. The new one in the group also caught her curiosity.

Her left eye, catching what little light it could, gave off a very feint eerie glow of it's own. The approach almost perfectly mimicked the picture the general had shown them the other night perfectly. Only without the presence of fog her features were slightly more visible. The white hair that was the was not covered by the hood reflected any light as did her incredibly pale skin. At least the left side of her face that was not covered in scars and wires.

Nick had quickly taken note of the amount of biters in the hall. The rattling must have loosened the lock. Or it was pushed out, the clever little bastards. A toothy grin stretched across her lips as she laid what looked to be a long and thin metallic spider leg, just shorter than half her height, over her right shoulder. The metals made a sharp noise as they made contact with each other.

This should be fun....  

[Blade Kuroda]

Once the spike had been set back in place, Shun drew out his gun once more and whirled around to give the others cover. Zutnic had done a pretty good job of keeping his back cleared of the blasted things and he'd have to thank him later on. Taking note that more of the spiders had appeared since he had last checked, he took aim and fired a few rounds at the ones furthest away from the group in general. He did not want to set his teammates on fire here.

Bent-Tail, on the other hand, was looking on the other side of the hall. When he saw the different glowing lights slowly approaching them, he gave a soft squeak before grabbing onto his pilot's pantleg with a paw to grab his attention.

"What is it Ben--" he said while glancing back. His words trailed off as he saw something approaching them that wasn't a biter. It was very reminiscent of the pictures Pendragon had provided them, and again it struck him as familiar but something was keeping him from recalling what it was exactly. Though, he could see more features here than in the photographs and this 'organoid' took on a female figure.

Gritting his teeth, he narrowed his eyes and raised his gun towards her.

Why did this feel so familiar too?

There was a fair amount of confusion clouding his mind at the moment as he was trying to sort out the bits and pieces. He knew she was dangerous. Yet at the same time, he had the feeling she wasn't quite an enemy? As of yet, he hadn't drawn the connection between the one before him and Nick, seeing how the fog did a nice job of altering her appearance in his previous memories.